Disclaimer; Gunslinger Girl is the property of Yu Aida.
---
Act One; mala tempora currunt
---
Rome, Italy
---
Elsa de Sica did not understand why she was still alive.
Part of her wanted to die. She had noting more to live for. If anything she only had an ever growing number of reasons to die.
Lauro was dead, by her hand no less.
She had nowhere else to go and no aim in life.
The withdrawal symptoms were putting her in an absolute state of agony.
Yet, here she was, alive and breathing, her human instinct of 'survive at all costs' finally overriding both her own conscious wishes and the waning influence of conditioning.
Not that surviving was an easy task from her perspective.
Her wounds had come oh so close to being infected, but fortunately she had stolen some medial supplies and, using her knowledge of human anatomy and medicine, actually did a reasonable job of patching up her shoulder wound on her own.
The authorities were likely still looking for who broke into that pharmacy.
She had rummaged through garbage cans for the smallest scrap of food and water. Elsa found that behavior to be strangely humiliating, but she did it anyway. She needed food to beat her failing strength.
She had tired to rob an (illegal-? she had no idea) firearms store, knowing eventually the Social Welfare Agency would pursue her eventually and needed some form of weaponry to defend herself, but had come off worse for the wear. Do not rob a man with a gun, lest he use it on you. She had suffered additional wounds because of her carelessness, one to the torso and one to the left forearm. It was a miracle the bullets didn't cause any serious injury to her internal organs.
She had escaped with her life only because the storekeeper was taken aback when he realized tat it was an eleven year old girl who was robbing his shop in the dark of night. She took her chance and ran, blood trailing behind her.
I was a wonder she didn't sustain any lasting damage from all the abuse she had been getting. Cyborgs were pretty sturdy, but even Elsa knew there was a limit to how much damage she could take before her body began to fail. She only had so many bandages, and the her body felt like it was on fire.
And she was still without a gun.
After that incident, Elsa had been too frightened that she might not survive a repeat performance if she trying to rob another gun store again that she steered clear from such activities, despite knowing she would be unarmed for the inevitable confrontation.
Elsa knew in all probability, the SWA would know exactly were she was. How they did, she did not know, but she knew before long they would come at her, regardless as to whether she was ready or not. And when they did, weaponless or not, she would fight.
Elsa de Sica did not understand why she was fighting to say alive. Yet she was, and she was willing to devote every last inch of her being to keep it that way.
---
As Elsa had predicted, it was only a matter of time before the Social Welfare Agency learned what had transpired.
Three eye witnesses, a ballistics test and one very dead handler and a man in a coma were all they needed to know that Elsa de Sica had gone rouge.
The threat was bigger than they could ever have expected. A rouge cyborg. An awesome killing machine, honed with the finest training Italy had to offer, with superhuman strength and agility, had somehow malfunctioned. She killed her handler and put a police officer, a good man and a single father of two in a coma.
She had to be stopped.
In a move that stunned to his subordinates, Lorenzo contacted his opposite number in Section One... and requested their help. He knew it was only a matter of time before it got out anyway with the public fanfare on the policeman's death, better to get their assistance now and make it look like a coordinated effort, than have Draghi blow the whistle to the higher ups later down the line. Draghi's smug face was far better than a seeing the angry faces of the bass.
Two special taskforces comprising of both Section One and Section Two members was set aside to find and contain the situation.
The first consisted on operatives whose sole directive was to make sure that the SWA's activities did not ever reach the ears of the public. Easier said than done. Pricilla, Ferro, Alphonso, Jean and Rico were put in this group along with four other Section One members. It would be a difficult job, with Elsa rampaging across the city in her unbridled crime spree, but they still considered they had the easier job.
The second was tasked with the elimination of Elsa de Sica herself.
Henrietta, Beatrice and surprisingly Claes were assigned to this group with their handlers, with Triela on standby should the three prove insufficient to complete the task. Three cyborgs to take down one. Claes was taken aside by Lorenzo himself and given a very specific assignment, one that she accepted after much deliberation and cryptic consultation with her roommates and the scientists. She didn't say much other than she gave Henrietta a set of gardening books and asked her to take care of her garden for a while. She then began to pack her belongings.
Claes hadn't done anything yet or gone anywhere yet, so the girls were mystified as to her strange behavior.
Two specialists, Pietro Fermi and Elenora Gabrielli were Section One's contribution. They analyzed Elsa's psychological profile, her combat record, her habits and spoke with everyone that knew her to paint a picture about what to expect. They came to the conclusion that Elsa was a deranged psychopath and would have gone rouge eventually. It was fortunate she did so in a deserted park instead of a crowded marketplace.
She was also arguably Section Two's most dangerous and well trained cyborg despite her relative age. None of her former peers could even hope to match her in a straight up one on one fight. Pinning this one down would be a feat in itself until the conditioning withdrawal symptoms kicked in. Even then, she might be a difficult one to put down.
The situation seemed pretty bleak.
Then it got worse.
Somehow, the enemy had gotten wind that one of the dolls had flown the coop and were in the process of tracking her down. Four men of the highest calibre had been dispatched to capture Elsa. From what they learned of them, these men were not one to be taken lightly, even for regular human beings. If anything, they should be worried, the Padania had readily sent 'mortal' agents to carry out their will against a mechanical body. That spoke volumes about the men already.
One of the men even had made contact, a curious gentleman named 'Pinocchio'. Even though 'Pinocchio' lacked the GPS edge they possessed, sources had suggested that the assassin had already found and almost succeeded in capturing Elsa once already.
Waiting for conditioning's withdrawal symptoms to tip the scales in their favor was no longer an option.
By the time the sun dawned on the seventh day after the fateful night, the SWA began operations to hunt down and terminate their former asset.
---
As for the girl in question? She was experiencing nine different kinds of hell.
She was sitting curled in a fetal position in a small alcove in the back-streets of Italy. She was filthy, cold, hungry and her entire body felt like it was on ablaze.
Withdrawal symptoms from her lack of conditioning.
Elsa was almost unrecognizable.
Elsa's once clean blonde hair was now flowing free, no longer in the twin pigtails she was so well known for, and was matted with grime and sweat. Her clothes were torn and ripped in many places. She scarf was torn up, used as makeshift bandages in her first hours of 'freedom'. There was grime and dried blood over many places of her body.
Yet despite her sordid state, the former assassin kept her diminished but still functional senses peeled. Earlier a man with knives had attempted to capture her. She was fairly certain she had never seen him before, so she assumed he was with Padania.
She didn't know why, but she knew she had to resist capture. Caught off guard, she had to fight him up close. He was unlike anything she had ever encountered before, his speed and skill not only comparable to hers at her prime, perhaps even surpassing those limits.
Her escape was only because she fell into the Tiber river during their running battle... Or at least she fooled him into thinking she fell into the river; Elsa knew she would sink like than a rock if she ever tried that escape route. One of the things she never learned how to do was swim.
She hoped that man was still combing the length of the river. That should buy her some time.
She cursed him under her breadth; she scuffle with him had caused her to drop most of her inventory including all her painkillers. All she had now was two rolls of unused bandages, a single remaining bottle of antiseptic cream, three very sharp knives that had been used against her by that man, her torn clothes including her waterproof jacket and a mostly empty glass bottle of water and a souvenir wooden drinking straw she took from a garbage can.
It was with only these things in her jacket that Elsa had to repel the first attempt on her life by the SWA.
---
It was when the sky turned red by the setting of the sun when it happened.
Elsa didn't know how she realized they were coming for her. The only warning she received was the sound of pattering feet in her deserted alleyway.
Then, painfully turning her head, Elsa saw Henrietta of all people round the corner.
It is a confirmed fact that when a Cyborg enters into a combat situation, that they have been programmed to block out any sort of pain or anxiety and focus their mind. True they are aware of injury. It was just that pain no longer affected them until after that combat situation has passed. Even without her conditioning, Elsa's brain chemistry had forever been altered that whenever she was forced into an actual combat situation, she would be able to rise up to the task no matter her mental or physical state at the time.
Hence why the cyborg assassins of the SWA were referred to as dolls and machines, seemingly soulless automatons in battle, a far cry from the adolescent children they really were.
Instantly, Elsa's changed brain chemistry forced all the pain and fear out of her mind and surged into action. Henrietta had not seen her yet, as evidenced by the small girl slowly sweep her P90 around the shadowed alleyway.
Elsa had two options, fight or flight.
Really, she had only one...flight. The chances of Henrietta being unsupported were slim to none. Unarmed as she was, Elsa was far from ready for a straight out confrontation with even the hopelessly inept Angelica. So Elsa took a quiet deep breadth to reduce her need for breathing and waited for Henrietta's gaze to sweep away. Then she began her escape, favoring speed over caution.
All the while, Elsa calculated her next move.
---
Henrietta was confused.
"I don't see her anywhere Jose." She said into her wire.
For all her enhanced senses, Henrietta was unable to see where the familiar beret and jacket of her quarry was.
"That's odd, the GPS says she's right in front of you. In fact, it hasn't moved much. She should be stationary. You sure you can't see her Henrietta?"
Henrietta furrowed her eyebrows and squinted. All she could see was the still shadows, empty alcoves, maybe a few trashcans, and absolutely no sign of Elsa de Sica. And it was a straight alley for about fifty meters down from where she was standing too.
"I'm sorry Jose, I really can't see her."
"Is that so? Well, Lauro supposedly taught her everything, so I'm not surprised that you can't see her yet since she might have camouflaged herself. What about you Claes?"
Claes was positioned at the other end of the alleyway, like Henrietta, the older cyborg was scanning for the target, holding her gun 'uncomfortably' in her hands. "I can't see anything either."
"... did she ditch the tracking device? Can't be, it's next to her heart..." the handler contemplated. "Alright, advance slowly, but back each other up. I don't want her getting the jump on you since I'm not there to cover you."
"Yes Jo…"
Abruptly Beatrice stepped around Henrietta, causing the latter to recoil as a reflex action. Henrietta hadn't worked with Beatrice much before, but truth be told, the young cyborg was quite intimidated by the other girl, especially after she found out about Elsa. Elsa and Beatrice were both so cold and distant, that they were so alike, it worried Henrietta. She couldn't help but wonder... what if Beatrice went berserk as well?
Henrietta resolved to try and befriend Beatrice. Elsa's friendless situation might have contributed to what lead down to this path, a thought that did make Henrietta slightly guilty since she gave up so early.
The emotionless cyborg swept her eyes around the alley, and then closed them.
"Beatrice, do you see anything?" Henrietta tired to inject as much friendliness into her tone as possible, but still came up flat.
Suddenly Beatrice's eyes shot open and her upper body snapped into a firing position. She squeezed off a three round burst from her FAMAS, and promptly grazed her target in the right lower leg.
---
"Gah!"
Elsa should have known it was her rancid small that would give her away.
She almost lost her grip on the tiles of the roof when the bullet found itself searing a few millimetres of flesh off her shin. Fortunately she hauled herself over the threshold just as the bullet struck, allowing her to avoid the other two.
One problem with the cyborgs she often noted was their inability to unconsciously register things above or below their level of elevation. Since they were trained for mostly indoor combat, attacking targets that they could not see above or below their peripheral vision without consciously being aware of it was an unfortunate problem their standard training did not cover. A weakness Elsa fully intended to exploit.
She almost succeeded too.
Alas, she had forgotten Beatrice was practically a blood hound with that nose of hers. That mistake was certainly going to cost her.
"...ah..." Elsa clamped her hand down on her bleeding wound.
Listened carefully as she heard the small stampeding of feet as the three mechanical bodies hurried after her. Quickly applying her antiseptic cream and a fresh bandage to her newest injury, Elsa pushed though the pain and took off across the roofs.
As a cyborg, even one experiencing withdrawal, Elsa was still strong enough to leap across gaps between the rooftops.
As long as she tried to remain visible to the general public, the SWA could be less inclined to try anything. That was her strategy; Head for a crowded spot, they'll be less likely to try shooting her there. But it only bought her time, and what she needed to do was get away.
---
"...she took to the roofs." Jose murmured to himself as he and watched the live video feed in the surveillance van a safe distance away. "She realized that we don't train them to actively scan different elevations so she took to the roofs."
Despite himself, Jose felt a small grudging respect of his late colleague's murderer.
Although standard operating normally involved the handlers to take to the field with their cyborgs, but in this case Lorenzo judged that it would be too risky to have the vulnerable human handlers right a fully trained rouge cyborg, hence why Jose was forced to cool his hells in the back of a stupid van while Henrietta was putting her life on the line.
He wasn't too happy about it, and protested the idea deeply. If Henrietta was out in the field, he wanted to be there to cover her. Then Jean played dirty by explaining oh so calmly to Henrietta what horrors awaited Jose should Elsa ever meet him in person. After that, with his own cyborg urging him to stay in the van, Jose was left with little choice.
Bernado on the other hand was happily sipping a can of beer in the seat next to him, confident that in a three to one situation there was no way they could possible fail.
"Beatrice almost hit her." Pierto noted. "It's just that we were too late in realizing she had gone upwards."
"This is great." Bernado commented. "It's like fox hunting, except with high powered automatic rifles and a semi bullet proof target."
Jose tried not to show his displeasure at Bernado's attitude towards their hunt. Jose didn't think that the problem wasn't as easy as his colleague thought it would be.
They had tapped into the city's security camera network, allowing a third person view of the action when Elsa was outdoors. Between the first person live feeds, the city's surveillance cameras and their GPS, they had a pretty good grasp on the action.
It was a pity Elenora went to search up on Elsa's pre-cyborg background, he would like to hear her input into the unfolding events. She was the one who drew up Elsa's psychological profile.
His impression of Elsa de Sica was that of an exceptionally skilled and well trained cyborg. Lauro in his drive to make the girl his perfect tool had molded her into a weapon on a completely different level from anything even the Social Welfare Agency had imagined.
Lauro wanted a real living breathing action hero. Well there she was.
If Jose's hunch proved right, Elsa could very well turn the tables on them if she remembered anything she was taught.
"Hey, Beatrice is intercepting her now."
Thanks to the cybernetic advancements in their eyes, the human members of the taskforce could see exactly what the three cyborgs on the field were seeing in real time on the computer screens. Live feed.
They watched on the GPS map as Beatrice's signal overlapped with Elsa's.
Elsa had chosen to duck into the emergency stairwell of a small hotel. Beatrice, her FAMAS in her Amanti case as not to make it conspicuous, had easily entered the hotel herself and was ascending that same stairwell.
It was only a matter of time until they clashed.
So the three men stared intently a at the monitor watching from a first person perspective as Beatrice advanced up the stairwell, one hand in her coat ready to draw her Walther P99 at a moment's notice...
The monitor turned the corner, and there was a flash of green, and suddenly the screen became a mass of distorted pixels.
"What?" Bernado exclaimed.
-
Elsa's hearing was as good as Beatrice's nose. She heard the other cyborg ascending the stairs. So Elsa waited for the girl and took her completely by surprise with a hook kick to the face with enough force to send the girl sailing down the stairs. Elsa plucked the flying Walther P99 out of the air and advanced.
-
For a moment, it seemed like Beatrice was dead, the screen was all static and there was no response from her. There was complete silence from the three men.
Then the screen's resolution returned, as the feed resumed, with a nice picture of the gray cement floor now filling the screen. A soft moan echoed through the speakers. The camera shook as the girl groggily pulling herself to her feet...
"Hold it."
Beatrice stopped and took a sharp intake of breath. Hell the three men stopped breathing themselves when they heard the voice over the speaker.
"Turn around."
The camera slowly rotated until Elsa de Sica was in full view. Holding Beatrice's Walther P99 directly towards the camera, Beatrice's eye, Elsa despite the sorry state she was in never looked so menacing to the men. Her beneath her shabby appearance they could see the fire burning in Elsa's eyes.
"Hello Beatrice."
"...de Sica."
It was little known that the two girls had a grudging respect for one another, since Beatrice and Elsa were two of the more efficient cyborgs in the SWA. Elsa strove for perfection, and Beatrice was the best attack dog Bernado could have.
Unlike Henrietta, Rico and company, Elsa and Beatrice were, for the lack of a better term, career women. As such, they respected each other, whatever reasons behind drive they both strove to excel in their trade.
"Give me your all your weapons."
"You have my Walther. That's all I have." Beatrice responded. Did you think I could bring my FAMAS into a hotel unnoticed?"
When she fell, Beatrice quickly threw her Amanti case over the side of the stairwell. The loud sound from her crashing against the floor hid the fact that her FAMAS had landed on a level below them, possibly rebounding off a wall to further distance itself to lessen the likely hood of Elsa from ever getting her hands on it. It was a good initiative, but it might be Beatrice's last.
"...Then give me your ammunition." Elsa knew Beatrice was lying though her teeth. They had Amanti cases for a reason, and shed just been shot by the bullpup. It was unlikely Beatrice had not brought it with her, but time was short and Elsa didn't have time to argue with her.
"Do as she says." Bernado cut in, looking at the monitors carefully. His cyborg was in serious danger now. All his previous humour had drained out of him as the man focused on the tasking making sure Beatrice wasn't the one in the body-bag at the end of the day. Henrietta had just entered the hotel and was moving towards the stairs as swiftly as she could. "But do it, slowly."
The screen wobbled as Beatrice unfastened her magazines from her belt, slowly one at a time, and handed them to Elsa. Five twelve round magazines of fresh ammunition in all. Elsa frowned. That was a lot of ammunition. Obviously the weren't taking any chances.
By this time, Henrietta's live feed showed she was peeking around the corner of the stairwell, preparing herself to pop out and unload her SiG Sauer into Elsa's back.
"Are you going to kill me?" Beatrice asked, perhaps attempting to draw Elsa's attention.
"Not when Henrietta is peeking around the corner, I'm not." Elsa moved like greased lightning, grabbing Beatrice, lifting the startled cyborg into the air with powerful arms and tossing her down the stairs.
Naturally Henrietta couldn't take the shot without popping out and having Beatrice fall on top of her. Beatrice's feed once again became a mix of static as the cyborg was sent sprawling on the ground, while Henrietta darted out only to find the stairwell empty with exit door on that level swinging shut.
---
Elsa stuffed the oddly fitting green polymer frame Walther P99 into her holster, and the magazines into her jacket pocket as she ran through the small hotel hall way, ignoring the startled looks of guests as she ran down the carpeted central stairs that many of the guests used.
Elsa resisted the urge to pump her fists in satisfaction. She'd somehow bested two of her former peers, including Henrietta. As close as it was, Elsa couldn't help but feel a form of satisfaction at her achievement.
Henrietta and Beatrice were accounted for and were probably behind her, which left Claes as the wild card. Elsa felt her breathing beginning to become ragged. Elsa was reaching the limits of her endurance and throwing Beatrice down the stairs was much more difficult than she had expected, even if it was only for a moment. She hit the bottom of the stairs and took off in a dead sprint, ignoring startled faces of guests as a filthy eleven year old girl sped through and out of their hotel.
Her arrival and quick departure in the hotel foyer drew more attention than she would have liked, but it couldn't be helped.
Elsa had found she had somehow ended up on a main road next to the river Tiber. Had she travelled this far already?
Ignoring the stares of startled pedestrians, Elsa glanced up and down the road and despaired.
To her right, the bespectacled Claes was advancing towards her purposely, her hand in her pocket, probably a taser or some similar item.
To her left she saw a certain man do a double take at her, then steel himself and begin doing the same, his fingers twitching. Seems like he had been going up and down the Tiber after all.
Behind her, Elsa heard the heavy rushing of feet. Beatrice and Henrietta had entered the foyer. A quick glance behind showed her Beatrice was lying about not taking her FAMAS along, just like she anticipated.
And on top of that her fatigue was catching up with her. Lack of drugs meant she drained her stamina more quickly than the other cyborgs, and she'd been sprinting hard along the rooftops for a good ten to fifteen minutes. She would likely not survive a confrontation with any of them individually, let alone their combined might.
Her right, rear and left were no longer alternatives for her.
That left one option.
Setting her eyes in determination, Elsa sprinted across the road, dodging through traffic to the surprise of pedestrians and motorists who were forced to swerve to avoid a crazy girl who had just imposed herself in their paths. As she made it across the road, a screeching sound followed by a loud crash was heard behind her, but Elsa paid it no heed.
Ripping off her jacket and rolling it up, placing gun and magazines and everything that would be ruined on contact with water inside, securing the bundle to her hands and making sure to hold the glass bottle at a particular angle, Elsa braced herself.
She vaulted herself over the side of the pathway into the cold water of the Tiber.
Elsa felt the water rushing up to her, she felt the coldness chill her to her bones.
Then her body began to sink...
---
Just under twelve hours later, Jean Croche walked up beside Ferro on the place where Elsa had thrown herself to her demise. When last they checked the GPS early this morning; her signal was still around that general vicinity, right under one of the bridges that connected the two halves of Rome.
They had been unable to search the area yesterday due to a massive head on collision between two cars causing the entire area to be cordoned, especially when one of the cars was propelled into through the glass doors of the hotel foyer by the impact. At least fifteen people were hurt in that disaster, including Beatrice, whose leg had to be replaced. Medical teams had swamped the scene, and the SWA were forced to leave until the following day.
This was the first chance they had gotten to investigate the scene, and Jean was confident it would not take them very long to do so.
What could that girl have been thinking? Cyborgs sank like rocks in water, she knew this. Even when it was low tide, Elsa must have known that she'd never be able to breathe at that depth.
She fought so hard, Jean was almost disappointed to see it end so anti-climatically.
"Hello Ferro. How goes the search?'
"We found Elsa's jacket snagged on one of the bridge pylons just like we thought. Her body shouldn't be too far away."
Jean grimaced. Drowning. What a way to go. Ferro nodded understandingly as she motioned to Alphonso below. Clad in full scuba gear, the large man waved an acknowledgement before taking the plunge to resume his search.
Suddenly a complication arose in the form of his cell phone ringing.
It was Lorenzo. "Jean, call off the search. The situation just became more complicated."
Jean turned his head in confusion. "What? Why? We found her jacket. It won't be long before..."
"The GPS says she just got on a bus." Jean was rendered speechless by Lorenzo's statement. "Shortly after we sent the search team out and stopped paying attention to the GPS, her signal started moving."
"What?"
"We didn't realize it only ten minutes ago. Right now she's in the bus interchange station." Lorenzo admitted gruffly. "We were too complacent. Hillshire and Triela are going to get to that station as quickly as they can, but by then she'll be long gone. More importantly, the Padania has attacked a member of the government. Fortunately they failed, but they've begun harassing government institutions throughout the city. We have to re-assess the situation, and quickly."
Jean closed his cell, a small measure of disbelief showing on his face.
"Jean?" Ferro asked as she noted his surprised expression.
"Call off the search." Jean said.
Ferro could instantly knew why Jean would order as such. Her mouth formed a thin line. "She survived."
Jean could only nod.
---
Elsa felt the water rushing up to her, she held her breadth as her body she descended to the bottom of the river. She had taken care to make sure she landed as close to the edge of the river as possible.
Taking care not to overturn the inverted glass bottle, Elsa began to scale the side of the stone river wall one handed, using anything she could get her hands on to propel her ascent.
It was low tide, but in the dense water were her arms and legs felt like lead, it felt like she had to scale a skyscraper. She had made it halfway when her chest told her she needed to breathe. Expelling air though her nose, Elsa raised the upturned bottle too her lips and breathed in.
It was a stopgap, and would only last so long, but Elsa could hold her breadth for a minute. Five minutes to scale three to five meters?
"...gah!"
With the help of that extra supply of air, Elsa was just barely able to pull her head out of the water after her bottle became too contaminated for continued use.
---
Elsa had not dared to move, knowing that if she did they won't think she had drowned. She spent the entire sleepless night trying to remain under that bridge, fighting the rising tide by climbing up the bridge pylon and using the wooden straw she had acquired to breathe.
That useless trinket she had sharpened as a makeshift weapon turned out of have its use after all.
---
Hours later, dark rings around her eyes and every muscle in her body aching from exertion, Elsa checked what had survived her night.
Her torn coat had only provided partial protection to her newly acquired weapon. From the looks of it, only two of the magazines and the one already loaded into the weapon were still usable. Her coat was in shambles though, and would make her too recognizable. The three combat knives were still usable. Only one roll of bandage was still usable, but both the bottle of antiseptic lotion had ruptured. This may be a problem in the foreseeable future.
It was at four thirty that she left the bridge, shortly before Jean's search team arrived.
Dripping wet, Elsa managed to steal some clothes' off someone's clothesline and, since she was off committing robberies, shook down a drunkard for money with her gun. Now she had clothes and money, if only a pitiful sum. It wasn;t long after when her brain had assessed the danger to have passed and her mental functions returned to normal.
She went to a public toilet, this one in one of Italy's bus stations to relive herself. Surprisingly, this one had some showers, and she took the full advantage of that detail. Thankfully it was mostly empty at that time, so aside from an elderly janitor, no one paid her much heed. It was five forty three in the morning when she towelled herself off and changed her filthy bandages.
Looking herself in the mirror, she found herself unable to recognize the person staring back at her. Elsa was slight disconcerted at the face staring back at her, eyes tinged red from the restless nights and face slightly gaunt from malnutrition. Donning the brown woollen sweater under the green leather jacket, and pleated skirt and stockings, all one size too big for her, Elsa was satisfied that although she was now more presentable, she was still inconspicuous enough to be unrecognisable.
Just to be safe, Elsa did her hair into one long braid and slipped the olive baseball cap onto her head. Never hurt to be safe.
She immediately left and had what constituted as her first normal breakfast in a week at of all places, McDonalds. She also picked up a newspaper, which she intended to use as cover should she need it.
It was to her dismay she saw her face pasted on the front page, or at least what use used to look like. Her sting of burglaries didn't go unnoticed, and her victims had cobbled a rather accurate picture of her. Eleven years old, greasy long blonde hair, aqua blue eyes...
She took the shadows more after that. Elsa was beginning to get slightly paranoid inspecting every face that passed by discreetly was if that person would whirl, around and identify her or worst yet, attack her. At least her shower had allowed her to freshen up, perhaps making her look smart enough that no one would recognise her from the photo.
"That shower was a good idea."
She still made it a point to get some hair dye later.
Her mouth also began twitch when she realized her former employers were probably having a field day with her face in the papers.
At eight ten, Elsa got on a bus to Sicily using the money she had acquired just as Jean found out she had survived her dip into the Tiber when the station was experiencing its morning rush hour to hide in the crowd. Taking the rearmost seat and carefully watching the people who entered the bus, Elsa released a breath she didn't know she was holding the bus door finally slid shut. Relieved and tired she set a cheap backpack she had bought down on her lap and took out a plastic bottle of water to drink, her parched lips gratefully accepting the droplets of water.
It was a wonder nobody paid any attention to her. But then again, she did act mature for her age and the lines on her face made her look older. The conductor seemed to have bought her drivel about visiting a relative in Sicily, so she made it on the bus without too much fanfare.
She replaced the cap and put the bottle back in her bag. Elsa settled into her seat uncomfortably, trying to ignore the burning sensation slowly creeping up her skin. Now that her adrenalin had died own, she was beginning to feel pain again. She really wished she still had those pain killers.
Pulling her olive baseball cap further down over her eyes, almost an hour later because she kept scanning the passengers for anything she missed, Elsa soon fell into a fitful sleep, all the while knowing that her ordeal would only continue to get worse from here...
---
Triela walked back into her dorm room after a harrowing day. As she had expected, their trip was a wasted one, Triela had wasted a full five hours of her life asking stupid questions and chasing up false leads... and digging through trash for a stupid filthy piece of cloth.
Elsa de Sica was long gone by the time the duo arrived. All she and Hillshire found out was that Elsa had gotten on a bus. Which bus? Hillshire wasn't able to find out. Elsa had jumped on one of the busy periods when traffic in the station was it its peak, so she could be on her way to Verona, Sicily or even on her way out of the country by now!
Triela loosened her tie and breathed deeply. This was really troublesome, especially with the Padania beginning to kick up a ruckus again. Lorenzo had temporally asked Henrietta and Jose to call off the search in favour of guarding a high ranking official. Beatrice, her backup was recovering from the car crash anyway, so another assassination attempt would be a long time in the making.
"Hey Claes, I missed her. I guess this means you'll have another mission again."
Truth be told, Triela was disappointed that Elsa had gone and done this. She may not have been close to the girl but Triela regarded all the cyborgs as her sisters. Elsa had fallen quite nicely into the quiet, anti-social relative-you-never-saw niche very nicely. Despite how rude she was to the other girls, Elsa did have a special place in all their… she couldn't say hearts, but the soft-spoken professional did have her place.
What she had done reflected badly on the entire dormitory. Triela had a half mind to go out there on her own and drag the Elsa bag kicking and screaming by her pigtails to take responsibility for what she had done. It was all what it came down to wasn't it?
Responsibility.
That idiot better be careful, once Triela got her hands on her…
Triela she noticed her roommate had not responded to her quip. Silence. Triela wondered what she had done to get the cold sholder from her roomate.
"Claes? Hey why the silent treatment? I know you're tired from yesterday but still..."
Triela curiously popped her head up over to look at the upper bunk, only to see a set of neatly folded sheets and a letter addressed to her lying neatly on the center of it, Claes neat orderly handwriting on the front.
"Claes...?"
---
Claes tapped her new PDA to draw up the GPS map as she settled down in near back of the bus and tried to look inconspicuous.
From the distance between the signals, Claes estimated that she was roughly six hours behind her prey, but judging from Elsa's fatigued look the last time she saw her, Claes knew the rouge would have to stop somewhere eventually to catch her breadth, giving the fully rested Claes time to close the distance. Pocketing the device, Claes took her medicine, and then withdrew a new book she had gotten from a souvenir store and began to read, one eye on the book, one eye looking out for anybody who might look suspicious.
The scientists had loaded her with everything they thought she would need for an extended trip and as long as she had her (brand new) Blackberry, Priscilla was just a phone call away.
Claes shifted awkwardly as the gun in her shoulder holster, the H&K HK45C pistol she had been specially supplied with and was admittedly not very inclined to use poking her ribs uncomfortably, Claes couldn't help but wonder who would care for her garden while she was gone.
---
A/N
Okay, this is the continuation of 'Mistake!' Round of applause everyone!
And can anybody recommend me a good weapon for Elsa now that she has ditched her Sig s229? I had her acquire a Walther P99 from Beatrice chambered for .40 S&W. I like its design and the fact Bond uses it, but seriously I should have more to go by than just that. As good as .40 S&W is, Elsa needs a bigger gun and a more powerful round since she's up against cyborgs. (EDIT - Forums and too much S.T.A.L.K.E.R. made me decide on .45ACP in a custom M1911 she snags off the youngest brother of an international crime syndicate boss. If it can put down a boar, it can put down a cyborg.) (EDIT-Watched too much Black Lagoon, now I'm Beretta crazy.)
This chapter was mostly action, the next will be focus more on character development. I have self discovery as a major theme of this story, with Elsa slowly finding herself now that she's free of Lauro. I have the ending in my head already. (EDIT-Ending's changed. But I still have it in my head)
IMPT - I've drawn up the epilogue already, and sent an e-mail over to another author, Person, requesting if I can feature his work in this story. Depending on his answer, i many have to change the direction of the story. (EDIT-Changed the ending, now in process of rewriting it)
---
Preview;
Elsa, now in Sicily tries to come up with along term course of action now that she has some respite. All the while the man known as 'Pinocchio' and the young girl named 'Claes' continue to track her relentlessly...
-